I found this pic on instagram. Its an awesome jeep but is it safe towing a boat? From what i see online 2000lb max tow rating. Heck that boats trailer is probably close to that. Any jeep owners in here?

I've wanted another jeep for years but my boat has been a deal breaker (that and now the wife is about to birth our 5th kid). The interesting thing is that for the US market they list the max trailer weight at 3,500 but in the UK and Australia the same vehicle is listed with a max trailer weight of 4,500 and 5,000 lbs.

I've wanted another jeep for years but my boat has been a deal breaker (that and now the wife is about to birth our 5th kid). The interesting thing is that for the US market they list the max trailer weight at 3,500 but in the UK and Australia the same vehicle is listed with a max trailer weight of 4,500 and 5,000 lbs.

Yea, the fact Jeep won't up the rating aggravates me, especially considering it is higher in other countries. Oh well, hopefully the next gen Wrangler gets upped to 5k or they finally do the fabled Jeep pickup....

The main thing is the wheel base why the tow rating is lower on most jeeps. The narrow wheel base of the two doors, even though it has the same running gear as the 4 doors is what drops it's tow capacity.
The European version of a Wrangler Unlimited that is identical is rated at 5,000 lbs capacity with the exact same running gear and wheel base, but is only rated at 3,500lbs for the US version, probably due to something with the NHTSA versus actual capacity. My buddy is looking at trading in his 2 door for a 4 door Wrangler Unlimited just to be able to tow his boat and still have a jeep, albeit not as hardcore as his crawler he has now.

I've towed hundreds of times with a standard two door lifted TJ. It can certainly get sketchy at times and it isn't my first choice now that I have choices. Pulling isn't the issue. Stopping is the hard part. I had to pump the brakes good once to prevent a jack knife on a wet and windy mountain road when I came around a bend to find traffic stopped. That's where the short wheel base comes into play. I towed my old I/O from Minnesota to Denver without incident and I've pulled a 21 foot Tige from Denver to Pueblo without any problems. That unlimited JK would be much easier to tow with than what I have. If I was only pulling to my local lake less than 30 miles away, I wouldn't even worry about it as long as you're confident behind the wheel.

If they upped the eating for towing more then likely it would be even less of a "real" jeep the one posted above. I know most people see that jeep as looking badass but it's really only good for "looking" cool and not in any way functional. Kinda like a steroid guy.

Yes, it's badass. Yes the USA has weaksauce tow ratings on the JK Unlimited at 3500 compared to across the pond at 5000.

I was going to attempt a tow of my Supra with my built TJ. My Jeep has 3/4 ton axles. It has 4 piston brake calipers from a grand cherokee. Pretty much anything and everything has been built to excess for rock crawling.

My bumper's been tweaked a bit downward and my drawbar slopes a little down. The fact that my boat is parked in my RV parking on a slope that has the stern higher than the bow combined with the angle that my Jeep approached the trailer at made it so I couldn't get the ball in the tongue the one time I tried to hitch up. My wife drives an SUV that's our tow rig, so I've never bothered with using the Jeep to tow because I don't have to.

That said, the 4 doors with the longer wheelbase tow a ton better. I have towed 2000 to 3000 with my TJ and it's fine but it's not what I'd consider fun. Yeah, it's all about wheelbase because a 2 door wrangler has basically the same running gear as a Jeep Cherokee and gets a 2000 pound tow rating vs. the 5000 of the Cherokee.

I'm actually hoping that at some point I can find someone that wants to trade their mild to stockish 4 door unlimited JK for my built TJ. Because then I'd get more use out of it. It's been months since I've touched my Jeep...

I have towed with an unlimited Wrangler JK before around town. It does it, but not the best... Here are the issues that I see
-Motor is a dog. Drop a Hemi in it and I would overlook some of the other issues and use it to tow a 20'-21' boat
-Weight - they are light. Not real safe to tow something that weighs more than the tow vehicle
-Brakes and suspension not really set up for it
-Mirrors are not really set up to see behind the boat

I love Jeeps and have always wrestled with this, but the fact of the matter is they are not great to tow our boats. If I was rolling a 16' Bayliner, I would do it in a heartbeat.

I'll be taking it to a trail Jamboree in early July. so a 5 day trip of camping and wheelin'.

A big part of it is that I've got too many hobbies. I have a sportbike that hasn't gotten much use since I got the boat. And we're skiing/snowboarding all winter so that keeps me busy. I think I put about 30 days of riding in this year, which is pretty good for a "weekend warrior" that can only get up weekends and vacations. I also had my sno-wagon die on me a couple months ago (transmission took a dump) so I sold it off as a fixer and picked up an Audi S6 Avant. So yet another car that I have a list of things to modify and upgrade...

But yeah, in a week or two I'll reinstate the insurance on my Jeep... But I'll admit mine is modified so much that it's not really all that fun to drive on the freeway and gets 10 to 12 MPG. Ugh.

I have towed with an unlimited Wrangler JK before around town. It does it, but not the best... Here are the issues that I see
-Motor is a dog. Drop a Hemi in it and I would overlook some of the other issues and use it to tow a 20'-21' boat
-Weight - they are light. Not real safe to tow something that weighs more than the tow vehicle
-Brakes and suspension not really set up for it
-Mirrors are not really set up to see behind the boat

I love Jeeps and have always wrestled with this, but the fact of the matter is they are not great to tow our boats. If I was rolling a 16' Bayliner, I would do it in a heartbeat.

We tow my Sunsport with my wife's Honda Ridgeline. The Ridgeline has a 5000 pound tow rating like most other midsized SUV's. It cruises along okay. I'd imagine a JK Unlimited would be a very similar experience. We're only going 10 miles to and from the ramp, so it's not like I have this huge compelling reason to get some chipped turbo diesel Bro-Dozer truck. Honestly I hate trucks. Never liked them. Yeah, they're the best thing around for towing, but I really have zero desire to own one. So we get by with our Honda, and I get to daily drive my M3 and my S6. Works good so far.

I wouldn't tow that boat with that thing, unless it was still stock. Lifting it lowers the towing capacity substantially. That thing probably flops around, like titz on a warthog, with that boat behind it. I towed a VLX with a wrangler unlimited 4d, and it was scary. (we deal with some fairly steep grades up in VT)

I wouldn't tow that boat with that thing, unless it was still stock. Lifting it lowers the towing capacity substantially. That thing probably flops around, like titz on a warthog, with that boat behind it. I towed a VLX with a wrangler unlimited 4d, and it was scary. (we deal with some fairly steep grades up in VT)

I like to describe the handling of my lifted TJ on 35's as handling like a "drunk pig".

It depends on the lift kit you have on it as well. Did you get the Rugged Ridge special or do you have the much more expensive Rubicon Express long arm for instance? Did you just remove your sway bars all together or do you have sway bar disconnects? Derek is comparing apples to oranges because his rig is set up for trail use only. I wouldn't drive Derek's Jeep on the highway WITHOUT a boat behind it. I'd tow my 21 foot Nautique with my TJ on 35s without hesitation if I had to.

Derek - Your handle says 95yjwrangler but that Jeep has round headlights and I'm pretty sure that's a CJ, right? There's a lot of difference between a CJ and a JK.

Depends on how desperate you are. I towed 4,500lbs a few times with a 4 cylinder 5 speed ford ranger(while the primary tow vehicle was in the shop). Ride was fine with the air shocks on the rear...getting going and stopping however was a dangerously slow affair.

It depends on the lift kit you have on it as well. Did you get the Rugged Ridge special or do you have the much more expensive Rubicon Express long arm for instance? Did you just remove your sway bars all together or do you have sway bar disconnects? Derek is comparing apples to oranges because his rig is set up for trail use only. I wouldn't drive Derek's Jeep on the highway WITHOUT a boat behind it. I'd tow my 21 foot Nautique with my TJ on 35s without hesitation if I had to.

Derek - Your handle says 95yjwrangler but that Jeep has round headlights and I'm pretty sure that's a CJ, right? There's a lot of difference between a CJ and a JK.

Eric, the tub and grill are cj. All i was saying is I would not tow that Supra with that JK. As far as my build its on pirate if you want to check it out.

A short wheelbase light vehicle and a heavy boat makes a bad recipe for towing. JK's Unlimiteds are better than a short wheelbase JK/YJ/CJ but still a little light duty in my honest opinion. Different strokes for different folks.

Eric, the tub and grill are cj. All i was saying is I would not tow that Supra with that JK. As far as my build its on pirate if you want to check it out.

A short wheelbase light vehicle and a heavy boat makes a bad recipe for towing. JK's Unlimiteds are better than a short wheelbase JK/YJ/CJ but still a little light duty in my honest opinion. Different strokes for different folks.

I'm sure there's people that would say the same about towing our Supra Sunsport with our Honda Ridgeline. But again, I have no desire to invest money in a truck when the Honda gets the job done for the 10 miles each way. :-) Some people are willing to spend 10's of thousands to make something 1 level better. It's all in your priorities.

I found this pic on instagram. Its an awesome jeep but is it safe towing a boat? From what i see online 2000lb max tow rating. Heck that boats trailer is probably close to that. Any jeep owners in here?

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If there isn't more than one of these, then I'm pretty sure I saw this truck the other day in DFW. I was taking my boat up to the dealer and passed it on 35W-N in south Ft. Worth. Looks pretty badass up close, but wouldn't even consider towing with it. It's purely for show and has absolutely zero functional value.

I've pulled a much smaller boat with a jeep that has a higher tow rating (5k pounds), and it was frightful. This trailer didn't have brakes though, and I took it to Table Rock one year... well, it didn't want to stop and nearly fried my brake pads. I had so much brake fade from it not being able to handle this boat, and this thing only weighed probably 3300lbs loaded down with a trailer. NO THANKS to Jeeps. My Ecoboost pulls, and stops, my Supra with ease.

I've pulled a much smaller boat with a jeep that has a higher tow rating (5k pounds), and it was frightful. This trailer didn't have brakes though, and I took it to Table Rock one year... well, it didn't want to stop and nearly fried my brake pads. I had so much brake fade from it not being able to handle this boat, and this thing only weighed probably 3300lbs loaded down with a trailer. NO THANKS to Jeeps. My Ecoboost pulls, and stops, my Supra with ease.

It's the law in Washington that ANY trailer that weighs 3000 pounds or more. I personally wouldn't tow more than 1500 pounds w/o trailer brakes. My hard sided pop up camping trailer weighs in at 2000 pounds when I'm towing it and it has trailer brakes and it's been fine. I've towed it 1000 miles to Moab.

Oh, and there's NO question that the F150 would tow circles around any of the Jeeps. I *can* tow my camping trailer with my Jeep, but even with our Honda Ridgeline, it's soooo much easier. Obviously if you have a better tow rig, use that as the primary tow vehicle. But if I had that jeep in the original post, you bet your ass I'd tow the 10 miles of relatively flat freeway to the lauch with it from time to time!!!

I very seriously doubt that your Jeep weighs 5000lbs. My old 08 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab with a 4.7L V8 weighed exactly 5100lbs with about a 1/2 tank of fuel when I rolled it across the scales at the dump station a couple years back, and that truck had a lot more sheet metal/body, frame, and interior adding weight to it. I'd venture to guess that you're probably closer to the 4000lb range in your Jeep, and I just wouldn't feel comfortable towing much more than that little camper with a vehicle that light. At least those little pop-ups are much more balanced on the axle than a wake boat.

I very seriously doubt that your Jeep weighs 5000lbs. My old 08 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab with a 4.7L V8 weighed exactly 5100lbs with about a 1/2 tank of fuel when I rolled it across the scales at the dump station a couple years back, and that truck had a lot more sheet metal/body, frame, and interior adding weight to it. I'd venture to guess that you're probably closer to the 4000lb range in your Jeep, and I just wouldn't feel comfortable towing much more than that little camper with a vehicle that light. At least those little pop-ups are much more balanced on the axle than a wake boat.

And nice looking Jeep BTW.

Maybe it was like 4,300 pounds. I know it was a lot and I remember that my Jeep weighed like 1000 pounds more than a stock Jeep. It has a crap ton of extra weight (tons of skid plates, bumpers, winch, extra bedliner, extra roll cage, and the 35x12" tires on steel beadlocks aren't light.

Actually I'm trying to find a way to trade my TJ in on a 4 door JK so that I have that extra wheelbase and the 4 doors. Then I'd actually use my Jeep more. I figure a JK would tow about the same as my wife's 4500 pound Honda Ridgeline.

Why? A cherokee has a 5000 pound tow rating. Does your boat weigh more than that?

No, I just have a much more capable tow vehicle. And I installed the rear bumper on it and saw exactly what it bolts to. Cherokees don't have a solid frame. I wouldn't pull an 8ft trailer behind that thing.

While I'm skeptical about the short wheel base of even the new Grand Cherokee, I'm wondering if anyone on here has used either the v8 or the Diesel to tow a 4500-5k rig. I know it has a 7400lb tow rating when adequately equipped, but I wonder how they hold up on 4-5hr jogs out to the Colorado River. They are on my short list along with the prototypical GM SUV for a tow rig change in January.

I am located at 6500' in Utah and this Jeep GC with V8 does awesome in the mountains with the new 23 LSV. A matter of fact, the transmission temp did not get above 200, and my suburban gets to 220 while climbing over 8700'. The new 8 speed transmission is the key with the new JGC's and the V8 or the Eco-Diesel.

When I was in high school we pulled a a 24ft pontoon boat (not near as heavy as an inboard) with a wrangler and after 55mph it was a scary ride even for fearless 18 yr olds. The boat/trailer would sway side to side and surely would have rolled the jeep if we kept it up.

Just towed my new Enzo 300 miles a few weeks ago with my SRT...over 5500 lbs and the transmission and oil temps never varied more than 4 degrees. And the Brembos plus 4 disc brakes on the trailer make stopping a non-issue!